For some strange reason my nephew likes Peugeot 306's - his current one which he paid £1000 less than a year ago for has a slipping clutch and the back axle seems to be falling off.

Even stranger he wants to buy another and he wants me to look at one he has found to see if it is ok - I can't think of anything worse to do on a saturday morning my self but I suppose I should help where I can.......

So knowledgeable people on LCB what problems should I be looking for on a peugeot 306 diesel with 130k miles on it? What is the back axle issue that they all seem to suffer from and how do I spot it? I tried telling him to avoid it like the plague but that doesn't seem to be an option.

Many thanks in advance

Cheers

Mooky

Shout at the Co-op driver, turn your phone off and have a long lie in

The problem with the rear axles is two fold: the rubber mountings that attach the axle assembly to the body perish and fall apart (fairly cheap and easy to fix), but the main problem is the bearings that the trailing arms pivot on wear out and break up with age, giving lots of movement at the wheel. If the bearings are in a bad way there will be a noticeable amount amount of negative camber on the rear wheels. The bearings can be replaced if no too far gone, but if left the bearing housing gets worn away making repair impossible to expensive. If you can find a good complete rear beam assembly s/h it's not too bad a job to swap it all over.

i had a 2000 306 diesel from new till 225k miles with no major problems, think rear axle problems are the subframe mounting bushes, which requires the subframe to be dropped to replace, would expect if getting bad may have been issued with an advisory if its had a recent MoT so worth looking at not just the certificate (can also look on line if you have the Mot details) failing that a look under neath with a pry bar.
also worth looking at all teh electrics work as another French issue, finally clutch this is not always the actual clutch, ive been told that the clutch cable runs close to the exhaust (on Diesels anyway) which causes the cable to dry and stick

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Originally posted by coozer
Shout at the Co-op driver, turn your phone off and have a long lie in

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As has been said, the main problem with the rear beam causes excess negative camber, so have a good look at the car from behind.

The rear brake calipers are notorious for being crap, which is only really an issue for the handbrake.

Changing the whole rear subframe isn't a difficult job. The S16 one has stiffer torsion bars (I think, may be ARB's) so it's the desirable one.

Chris

Thanks guys - anything else?

On the HDi, if there's a knocking from the pulley end of the engine, use it as a bargaining tool, then replace the harmonic damper pulley for £30-40
The early versions are almost a service part, the later replacements last much longer.

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Originally posted by UncleFista
On the HDi, if there's a knocking from the pulley end of the engine, use it as a bargaining tool, then replace the harmonic damper pulley for £30-40
The early versions are almost a service part, the later replacements last much longer.

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Had one for a while before it blew up in Belgium.

Main worry is definitely the rear axle - particularly as you can only realistically replace it with another used one (proper refurbs cost silly money as do new ones if you can get them).
If it's got alloys, check the camber by putting your hand between the tyre and the inner wheel arch at the top of the wheel. You should have at least 10mm between the tyre and the arch liner.

If the arch liner isn't there, it's likely to have been removed or trimmed away as the wheel started rubbing.

If the arch liner isn't there and the wheel has rubbed on the metal, then it's properly wankered.

Engines seem alright (I can only talk about the TurboDiesels, the ones to have!), as long as you change the belt (not too bad a job to be honest) - pull off the inlet hose going into the intercooler and make sure there isn't significant amounts of oil in there (Turbo seals weeping, then the engine self perpetually runs on it's own oil - quite happily revving with no input from me to 8k rpm in my case!).

Worth looking for one with the right interior/feature goodies as it's not economical to retrofit most things.

Phase 1's (More square lights) had Bosch injection pumps, and will run on vegetable oil. Also very easy to tune for more poke (and smoke!).

Later models had things like side airbags (usually broken) and a slightly different interior.

The sunroof can break. This isn't a switch breaking, this is actual cracking/breaking of one of the actuating arms that moves the glass. Best keep it closed and enjoy the sunshine!

Another maaaajor hassle is the body to door wiring - the way it was designed is such that it twists it over itself when you open/close the door and so the wires break which usually leads to intermittent issues with central locking and window winders (on mine, the window wouldn't work unless the door was closed... better than the other way round I suppose). The only fix is to get new wire and solder it in.. as there's a fair few of them there, not the most pleasant job.


Overall I thought it was a brilliant car except for the gremlins mentioned above. Having said that I did pay £500 at a dealer, and would have been significantly more annoyed had I paid £1000 for one.

In fact I still have some beefy front brakes for one and a complete timing belt kit along with other goodies. Best get them on the bay!

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Originally posted by ChrisW
As has been said, the main problem with the rear beam causes excess negative camber, so have a good look at the car from behind.

The rear brake calipers are notorious for being crap, which is only really an issue for the handbrake.

Changing the whole rear subframe isn't a difficult job. The S16 one has stiffer torsion bars (I think, may be ARB's) so it's the desirable one.

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quote:

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Originally posted by UncleFista
On the HDi, if there's a knocking from the pulley end of the engine, use it as a bargaining tool, then replace the harmonic damper pulley for £30-40
The early versions are almost a service part, the later replacements last much longer.

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Avoid the dw8 engine as they are crap!

No one seems to have mentioned a leaking heater matrix which the 306 suffers from and is a dash out job !Part isn't expensive but don't disconnect the hoses as they can be a pain.

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Originally posted by dhutch
The half leathers on the merdian spec ones are desirable items, nice to sit in, and when i broke one of our 306's i got £250 for them the same day.[Edited on 12/11/2010 by dhutch]

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Do not get the non-turbo diesel. It lacked power so much I was blasting it everywhere just to get it moving

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Originally posted by rusty nuts
No one seems to have mentioned a leaking heater matrix which the 306 suffers from and is a dash out job !Part isn't expensive but don't disconnect the hoses as they can be a pain.

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